Type 2 diabetes is due to insufficient insulin production from beta cells in the setting of insulin resistance.[13] Insulin resistance, which is the inability of cells to respond adequately to normal levels of insulin, occurs primarily within the muscles, liver, and fat tissue.[44] In the liver, insulin normally suppresses glucose release. However, in the setting of insulin resistance, the liver inappropriately releases glucose into the blood.[10] The proportion of insulin resistance versus beta cell dysfunction differs among individuals, with some having primarily insulin resistance and only a minor defect in insulin secretion and others with slight insulin resistance and primarily a lack of insulin secretion.[13]
[1] Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Long-term effects of lifestyle intervention or metformin on diabetes development and microvascular complications over 15-year follow-up: the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. 2015;3(11):866‒875. You can find more information about this study on the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study website.
When you have diabetes, your body becomes less efficient at breaking food down into sugar, so you have more sugar sitting in your bloodstream, says Dobbins. “Your body gets rid of it by flushing it out in the urine.” So going to the bathroom a lot could be one of the diabetes symptoms you’re missing. Most patients aren’t necessarily aware of how often they use the bathroom, says Dr. Cypess. “When we ask about it, we often hear, ‘Oh yeah, I guess I’m going more often than I used to,’” he says. But one red flag is whether the need to urinate keeps you up at night. Once or twice might be normal, but if it’s affecting your ability to sleep, that could be a diabetes symptom to pay attention to. Make sure you know these diabetes myths that could sabotage your health.
Apart from severe DKA or hypoglycemia, type 1 diabetes mellitus has little immediate morbidity. The risk of complications relates to diabetic control. With good management, patients can expect to lead full, normal, and healthy lives. Nevertheless, the average life expectancy of a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus has been variously suggested to be reduced by 13-19 years, compared with their nondiabetic peers. [34]
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that occurs when your blood sugar (glucose), is too high (hyperglycemia). Glucose is what the body uses for energy, and the pancreas produces a hormone called insulin that helps convert the glucose from the food you eat into energy. When the body either does not produce enough insulin, does not produce any at all, or your body becomes resistant to the insulin, the glucose does not reach your cells to be used for energy. This results in the health condition termed diabetes.
Visual impairment and blindness are common sequelae of uncontrolled diabetes. The three most frequently occurring problems involving the eye are diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and glaucoma. photocoagulation of destructive lesions of the retina with laser beams can be used to delay further progress of pathologic changes and thereby preserve sight in the affected eye.
The 1989 "St. Vincent Declaration"[117][118] was the result of international efforts to improve the care accorded to those with diabetes. Doing so is important not only in terms of quality of life and life expectancy but also economically – expenses due to diabetes have been shown to be a major drain on health – and productivity-related resources for healthcare systems and governments.
Diabetes mellitus (DM), commonly referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic disorders in which there are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period.[10] Symptoms of high blood sugar include frequent urination, increased thirst, and increased hunger.[2] If left untreated, diabetes can cause many complications.[2] Acute complications can include diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state, or death.[3] Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcers, and damage to the eyes.[2]

Can type 2 diabetes be prevented? It is possible to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, although the underlying risk of type 2 diabetes depends strongly on genetic factors. But there was less type 2 diabetes around some years ago when people had a more active life and didn’t eat a modern Western diet. So it is fair to say that risk of getting type 2 diabetes is based on a genetic predisposition that is aggravated by lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity, as well as a variety of environmental factors. To lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (as well as other diseases), it is highly recommended to exercise often, eat healthily, and maintain a healthy weight.

As part of proper diabetes management, it is important to be aware of the symptoms of abnormal blood glucose levels and know how to properly monitor your blood glucose levels using a home glucose meter. You should remember to always keep glucose tablets or candies containing sugar with you at all times to manage low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia). Symptoms of low blood glucose include:
Home blood glucose self-monitoring is indispensable in helping patients to adjust daily insulin doses according to test results and to achieve optimal long-term control of diabetes. Insulin or other hypoglycemic agents are administered as prescribed, and their action and use explained to the patient. With help from a dietitian, a diet is planned based on the recommended amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fats. The amount of carbohydrates consumed is a dietary key to managing glycemic control in diabetes. For most men, 60 to 75 carbohydrate g per meal are a reasonable intake; for most women, 45 to 60 g are appropriate. Saturated fats should be limited to less than 7% of total caloric intake, and trans-fatty acids (unsaturated fats with hydrogen added) minimized. A steady, consistent level of daily exercise is prescribed, and participation in a supervised exercise program is recommended.
Blood travels throughout your body, and when too much glucose (sugar) is present, it disrupts the normal environment that the organ systems of your body function within. In turn, your body starts to exhibit signs that things are not working properly inside—those are the symptoms of diabetes people sometimes experience. If this problem—caused by a variety of factors—is left untreated, it can lead to a number of damaging complications such as heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and blood vessel disease that may require an amputation, nerve damage, and impotence in men.

It is also important to note that currently one third of those who have IGT are in the productive age between 20-39 yr and, therefore, are likely to spend many years at high risk of developing diabetes and/or complications of diabetes1. Some persons with prediabetes experience reactive hypoglycaemia 2-3 hours after a meal. This is a sign of impaired insulin metabolism indicative of impending occurrence of diabetes. Therefore, periodic medical check-up in people with such signs or risk factors for diabetes would reduce the hazards involved in having undiagnosed diabetes. It would help improve the health status of a large number of people who otherwise would be silent sufferers from the metabolic aberrations associated with diabetes.

Patients with type 1 DM, unless they have had a pancreatic transplant, require insulin to live; intensive therapy with insulin to limit hyperglycemia (“tight control”) is more effective than conventional therapy in preventing the progression of serious microvascular complications such as kidney and retinal diseases. Intensive therapy consists of three or more doses of insulin injected or administered by infusion pump daily, with frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose levels as well as frequent changes in therapy as a result of contacts with health care professionals. Some negative aspects of intensive therapy include a three times more frequent occurrence of severe hypoglycemia, weight gain, and an adverse effect on serum lipid levels, i.e., a rise in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides and a fall in HDL cholesterol. Participation in an intensive therapy program requires a motivated patient, but it can dramatically reduce eye, nerve, and renal complications compared to conventional therapy. See: insulin pump for illus.
The classic oral glucose tolerance test measures blood glucose levels five times over a period of three hours. Some physicians simply get a baseline blood sample followed by a sample two hours after drinking the glucose solution. In a person without diabetes, the glucose levels rise and then fall quickly. In someone with diabetes, glucose levels rise higher than normal and fail to come back down as fast.
So what determines where fat is stored, and thus a person's propensity for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes? Well, just having more fat in the body increases the risk that some of it will get misplaced. But exercise may also have a role in fat placement. Exercise is known to reduce insulin resistance; one way it may do this is by burning fat out of the muscle. Because of this, getting enough exercise may stave off type 2 in some cases. Genes may also help orchestrate the distribution of fat in the body, which illustrates how lifestyle and genetics interact.
Although the signs of diabetes can begin to show early, sometimes it takes a person a while to recognize the symptoms. This often makes it seem like signs and symptoms of diabetes appear suddenly. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to your body, rather than simply brushing them off. To that end, here are some type 1 and type 2 diabetes symptoms that you may want to watch out for:
By simultaneously considering insulin secretion and insulin action in any given individual, it becomes possible to account for the natural history of diabetes in that person (e.g., remission in a patient with T1 diabetes or ketoacidosis in a person with T2DM). Thus, diabetes mellitus may be the result of absolute insulin deficiency, or of absolute insulin resistance, or a combination of milder defects in both insulin secretion and insulin action.1 Collectively, the syndromes of diabetes mellitus are the most common endocrine/metabolic disorders of childhood and adolescence. The application of molecular biologic tools continues to provide remarkable insights into the etiology, pathophysiology, and genetics of the various forms of diabetes mellitus that result from deficient secretion of insulin or its action at the cellular level.
A person of Asian origin aged 35 yr or more with two or more of the above risk factors, should undergo a screening test for diabetes. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is commonly used as the screening test10. Fasting and 2 h post glucose tests can identify impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (fasting glucose >110 - <125 mg/dl), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (2 h glucose >140-<200 mg/dl) and presence of diabetes (fasting > 126 and 2 h glucose >200 mg/dl). If a random blood glucose value is > 150 mg/dl, further confirmation by an OGTT is warranted. Recently, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) has been recommended as the test for diagnosis of diabetes (>6.5%). Presence of pre-diabetes is indicated by HbA1c values between 5.7 - 6.4 per cent11.
Another dipstick test can determine the presence of protein or albumin in the urine. Protein in the urine can indicate problems with kidney function and can be used to track the development of renal failure. A more sensitive test for urine protein uses radioactively tagged chemicals to detect microalbuminuria, small amounts of protein in the urine, that may not show up on dipstick tests.
Dietary factors also influence the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks in excess is associated with an increased risk.[32][33] The type of fats in the diet are important, with saturated fats and trans fatty acids increasing the risk, and polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat decreasing the risk.[26] Eating a lot of white rice appears to play a role in increasing risk.[34] A lack of exercise is believed to cause 7% of cases.[35] Persistent organic pollutants may play a role.[36]
Higher levels of sugar in the urine and the vagina can become a breeding ground for the bacteria and yeast that cause these infections. Recurrent infections are particularly worrisome. “Usually when you keep getting infections, doctors will check for diabetes if you don’t already have it,” says Cypress. “Even women who go to the emergency room for urinary tract infections are often checked.” Don’t miss these other silent diabetes complications you need to know about.
A person of Asian origin aged 35 yr or more with two or more of the above risk factors, should undergo a screening test for diabetes. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is commonly used as the screening test10. Fasting and 2 h post glucose tests can identify impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (fasting glucose >110 - <125 mg/dl), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (2 h glucose >140-<200 mg/dl) and presence of diabetes (fasting > 126 and 2 h glucose >200 mg/dl). If a random blood glucose value is > 150 mg/dl, further confirmation by an OGTT is warranted. Recently, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) has been recommended as the test for diagnosis of diabetes (>6.5%). Presence of pre-diabetes is indicated by HbA1c values between 5.7 - 6.4 per cent11.
Periodontal Disease. Periodontal disease is a commonly observed dental problem for patients with diabetes. It is similar to the periodontal disease encountered among nondiabetic patients. However, as a consequence of the impaired immunity and healing associated with diabetes, it may be more severe and progress more rapidly (see Right). The potential for these changes points to the need for periodic professional evaluation and treatment.

Originally described in approximately 30% of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, limited joint mobility occurs in 50% of patients older than age 10 years who have had diabetes for longer than 5 years. The condition restricts joint extension, making it difficult to press the hands flat against each other. The skin of patients with severe joint involvement has a thickened and waxy appearance.
Diabetes mellitus type 2 (also known as type 2 diabetes) is a long-term metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin.[6] Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, and unexplained weight loss.[3] Symptoms may also include increased hunger, feeling tired, and sores that do not heal.[3] Often symptoms come on slowly.[6] Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, strokes, diabetic retinopathy which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the limbs which may lead to amputations.[1] The sudden onset of hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state may occur; however, ketoacidosis is uncommon.[4][5]
FIGURE 19-1 ■. This figure shows the hyperbolic relationship of insulin resistance and beta cell function. On the y-axis is beta cell function as reflected in the first-phase insulin response during intravenous (IV) glucose infusion; on the x-axis is insulin sensitivity and its mirror image resistance. In a subject with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and beta-cell reserve, an increase in insulin resistance results in increased insulin release and normal glucose tolerance. In an individual for whom the capacity to increase insulin release is compromised, increasing insulin resistance with partial or no beta-cell compensation results in progression from normal glucose tolerance, to impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and finally to diabetes (T2D). Differences between these categories are small at high insulin sensitivity, which may be maintained by weight reduction, exercise, and certain drugs. At a critical degree of insulin resistance, due to obesity or other listed factors, only a further small increment in resistance requires a large increase in insulin output. Those that can increase insulin secretion to this extent retain normal glucose tolerance; those who cannot achieve this degree of insulin secretion (e.g., due to a mild defect in genes regulating insulin synthesis, insulin secretion, insulin action, or an ongoing immune destruction of beta cells) now unmask varying degrees of carbohydrate intolerance. The product of insulin sensitivity (the reciprocal of insulin resistance) and acute insulin response (a measurement beta-cell function) has been called the “disposition index.” This index remains constant in an individual with normal beta cell compensation in response to changes in insulin resistance. IGT, impaired glucose tolerance; NGT, normal glucose tolerance; T2D, type 2 diabetes.
After eating carbohydrates, the carbs break down into sugar, trigger the pancreas to produce insulin and are then stored in liver and muscles. However, there is a limit to the amount of sugar the liver and muscles can store. The easiest way to understand this is to think of your liver and muscles as small closets without much storage space. If sugar keeps coming in, the closet will quickly fill up.
While it's conceivable that scientists will isolate a single factor as causing type 1 and type 2, the much more likely outcome is that there is more than one cause. Each person seems to take a unique path in developing diabetes. Someday, doctors may be able to assess an individual's genetic risk for diabetes, allowing him or her to dodge the particular environmental factors that would trigger the disease. And perhaps if the baffling question of why a person gets diabetes can be put to rest, the answer will also offer a cure for the disease.
If you’re getting a good night’s rest but still find yourself so tired you can barely function, it’s definitely worth mentioning to your doctor. Diabetes often wreaks havoc on a person’s normal blood sugar levels, causing fatigue in the process. In later stages, the tissue death associated with untreated diabetes can also limit circulation, meaning oxygenated blood isn’t being effectively transported to your vital organs, making your body work harder and tiring you out along the way.
Although urine can also be tested for the presence of glucose, checking urine is not a good way to monitor treatment or adjust therapy. Urine testing can be misleading because the amount of glucose in the urine may not reflect the current level of glucose in the blood. Blood glucose levels can get very low or reasonably high without any change in the glucose levels in the urine.
There is currently no cure for diabetes. The condition, however, can be managed so that patients can live a relatively normal life. Treatment of diabetes focuses on two goals: keeping blood glucose within normal range and preventing the development of long-term complications. Careful monitoring of diet, exercise, and blood glucose levels are as important as the use of insulin or oral medications in preventing complications of diabetes. In 2003, the American Diabetes Association updated its Standards of Care for the management of diabetes. These standards help manage health care providers in the most recent recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Jump up ^ Cheng J, Zhang W, Zhang X, Han F, Li X, He X, Li Q, Chen J (May 2014). "Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular deaths, and cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis". JAMA Internal Medicine. 174 (5): 773–85. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.348. PMID 24687000.
Medications used to treat diabetes do so by lowering blood sugar levels. There is broad consensus that when people with diabetes maintain tight glucose control (also called "tight glycemic control") -- keeping the glucose levels in their blood within normal ranges - that they experience fewer complications like kidney problems and eye problems.[84][85] There is however debate as to whether this is cost effective for people later in life.[86]
Lifestyle factors are important to the development of type 2 diabetes, including obesity and being overweight (defined by a body mass index of greater than 25), lack of physical activity, poor diet, stress, and urbanization.[10][30] Excess body fat is associated with 30% of cases in those of Chinese and Japanese descent, 60–80% of cases in those of European and African descent, and 100% of cases in Pima Indians and Pacific Islanders.[13] Among those who are not obese, a high waist–hip ratio is often present.[13] Smoking appears to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.[31]
Blood travels throughout your body, and when too much glucose (sugar) is present, it disrupts the normal environment that the organ systems of your body function within. In turn, your body starts to exhibit signs that things are not working properly inside—those are the symptoms of diabetes people sometimes experience. If this problem—caused by a variety of factors—is left untreated, it can lead to a number of damaging complications such as heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and blood vessel disease that may require an amputation, nerve damage, and impotence in men.
Kidney damage from diabetes is called diabetic nephropathy. The onset of kidney disease and its progression is extremely variable. Initially, diseased small blood vessels in the kidneys cause the leakage of protein in the urine. Later on, the kidneys lose their ability to cleanse and filter blood. The accumulation of toxic waste products in the blood leads to the need for dialysis. Dialysis involves using a machine that serves the function of the kidney by filtering and cleaning the blood. In patients who do not want to undergo chronic dialysis, kidney transplantation can be considered.
Unexplained weight loss can happen for lots of reasons, and diabetes is one of them. Goundan explains that insulin helps your body move sugar from your blood to your cells, so when you have an insulin resistance, you don’t get enough energy into your cells despite all that sugar flowing through your body. “Because you’re unable to get enough energy from sugar, your body burns your own fat and muscle for energy," Kellis says. "Weight loss can be pretty significant, sometimes 10 to 20 pounds."